The Iso-Man Cometh: His Passion Is For Perfection -- From The Isetta, Through The Grifo And The Gt, From Powerboats To Poetry

Piero Rivolta was in the eye of Europe's Gran Turismo boom in the 1960s and '70s, when his Iso company went toe to toe with Ferrari on the street and, to a lesser extent, the track. Piero was born in 1941, the only son of Milan industrialist Renzo Rivolta, and literally grew up in his father's factory, learning the business from the ground up. As he says, "Fate put me there."
Shortly after World War II, Renzo's Isothermos refrigerator manufacturing firm began producing inexpensive, robust motorscooters. Success was so great that by 1950, Isothermos had changed its name to Iso Automotoveicoli and was Italy's third largest producer, behind Vespa and Lambretta.By then, young Piero was zipping around the immense factory on roller skates, trying to get from one side to the other without his father seeing him. "For me," he says, "it was like a battle for a championship, and the workmen would assist me in winning that imaginary championship."His passion for speed blossomed in the early 1950s, when Iso branched into motorcycle production. Piero spent most afternoons at the company's test track across the street from Villa Rivolta and the adjacent production facility. "I grew up on that track," he says, "and I really used those motorcycles."At the time, prosperity was spreading throughout postwar Italy, and Renzo foresaw a need for "a covered motorcycle" that protected the rider(s) from the elements. The innovative Isetta was Iso's solution, but Italian sales didn't meet expectations, so Renzo licensed Isetta production to other manufacturers, most notably BMW. Those royalties brought in another mountain of cash.

"If your car goes faster and doesn't break when you close the hood, you don't care what you have inside. FASTER IS FASTER!"

As the decade came to a close, Renzo was immensely wealthy, had owned a number of GTs, and raced powerboats for pleasure. But he was not satisfied with the cars he'd had. Piero recalls the time their Jaguar spun in inclement weather: "My father got out to make sure there was no mechanical failure. He found none, and was clearly frustrated by the bad road-holding. He looked at me and said, 'You drive this piece of steel.'"That episode and others (usually involving mechanical failure) served as the inspiration for the Iso gran turismo, which made its debut in 1962. The 140-mph Rivolta GT had a sophisticated platform chassis, handsome Bertone 2+2 coachwork, and a Corvette drivetrain. The Grifo, Fidia, Lele, and Varedo models followed over the next 12 years. Iso also had brief forays into endurance racing and F1.Our conversation with Piero took place when Iso's 50th Anniversary was honored at the Quail Motorsports Gathering in Monterey, California, in August 2012. He's intelligent, cultured, worldly, and possessed of a great sense of humor. We began by asking about Iso's use of an American V-8.Motor Trend Classic: You had the capabilities to produce your own engine, but went with the Corvette 327. Why?Piero Rivolta: My father was at the Frankfurt motor show in 1961, and overheard two Americans discussing cars. They were saying the ideal luxury car for America was a European GT with an American engine. When he found out one of them was Max Hoffman, he went and spoke with Nuccio Bertone about the idea.Bertone had recently done a car with that exact formula, the Gordon GT.
Bertone set up a meeting between my father and the Englishman behind it, John Gordon. That car had a Corvette V-8, and when we tested it, my father really liked the idea of a powerful but reliable engine because that meant you didn't have to "keep money in front of the car," as he would say.The Gordon, and just about every other GT at the time, used a tubular frame. Why did you go with a platform chassis?
Our chief technician was a very talented, quiet man named Pierluigi Raggi. He thoroughly investigated what the competition was using -- a tubular chassis -- and saw how the cars were made. Because we would have to subcontract chassis production, he felt we wouldn't get the quality we desired. We came from a background where something had to work without problems or faults, squeaks, or noises. Raggi thought a platform chassis welded to the body offered that, and was more suited for the production numbers we envisioned.You had great faith in Raggi, yet you brought in outside talent.
We needed experience in making this type of car, so my father approached Alfieri at Maserati, for they had been friends for years. He also spoke with Carlo Chiti and Giotto Bizzarrini after they left Ferrari, and ended up hiring Bizzarrini as a consultant. He worked alongside Raggi designing the chassis, and did development testing.

"I don't chase cars; I only chase Ferraris. I single them out to break them."

You were in college, and your family started producing a 140-mph GT. Did you ever have, shall we say, "encounters" when driving one of your cars?
Of course! One of my favorites was with my mother when I saw a green Ferrari Superamerica ahead of us on the autostrada. We had better mid-range acceleration and he had a higher top speed, so whenever we would brake for traffic and come back together, I didn't pass him to take a temporary lead but stayed behind him, to push him.We must have done 60 to 80 kilometers of this repeated braking and accelerating when all of a sudden a tremendous cloud came out from behind the car, like 007. We pulled over to offer assistance, and this elegantly dressed gentleman climbed into our car. After several minutes of traveling in silence, he asked, "Is it always so quiet, your car?" And I said, "It doesn't make any more noise than this."We arrived at the autostrada exit and right then, another Ferrari went by. I looked at my mother and said, "Damn, I missed that one!"Our guest looked at me funny and asked, "Why are you going around chasing cars?"I replied, "I don't chase cars; I only chase Ferraris. I single them out to break them."With a shocked look on his face he said, "You do that?"And I replied, "Yes, it is my job!"

Magic Moment Piero with a Rivolta GT (left) and Grifo GL prior to Iso's 50th anniversary at The Quail. On his less-than-svelte physique, he observes, "I am on a diet -- a diet to eat well."

The Rivolta GT was well received by the press and had enough performance to tangle with Ferraris, but wasn't selling as well as expected. What happened?
Our focus was on the American market. We had a contract with our importer, J.S. Inskip, and tooled up to produce two cars per day, and grow that to 2000 a year. The cars Inskip was required to take profitably covered the cost of everything. After the first shipment or two, they didn't take any more cars, and that created real problems.We didn't know where to go to find a new importer on such short notice.It was around this time the two-seat Grifo came into being.
Because our production was slower than we wanted, the Grifo was an experiment to make something exciting to push it. My father liked the BMW 507, and used this as a starting point for the discussion with Bertone. Our idea was to keep our investment minimal, and let Bertone do a shocking car, which is what they did.We considered a mid-engine car, but didn't go that route. Our thought was to make a comfortable car that you can drive fast easily, but forgives you if you make a mistake. Mid-engine cars are great for racing, but how can you go around with a motor between you and your wife?This was 1963, when you were in college. Did you work at the company?
In the mornings I worked with Raggi, our engine man Molli, and the administrative office. I also worked with my father, who put a desk in his office for me to use.You were also the test driver who uncovered an engine problem.
One of our Rivolta GT development cars had a 365-horsepower engine, which started making an unusual noise. Some cars had come back to us with blown engines with around the same amount of miles, so we opened up the engine and found a small hairline fracture through one of the connecting rods.We determined the problem came from running the car at high rpm for a long period of time, so we made our own connecting rods and put on a larger finned oil pan for proper lubrication. We never had a problem after that.